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Story : Elementary, My Dear Ambrosius
Setting Up Shop The last of the torchlight retreated up the long, narrow stairs, away from the mushroom shaped passage way in which Ambrosius now stood. Before him, the water elemental's cavern stood, water lapping gently up to the side walls of the walkway, about three or four feet off the ground. The sound of gently falling water came to his ears long before he could begin to see the outline of the elemental's garden at the end of the path. Arrayed at his feet were a few boxes, an upturned table and a chair, as well as his filled mattress. He knew that his eyes would eventually show him more, as they adjusted to the very dim luminescent light of the elemental garden and the rocks of the cave walls, but for now, he stood there allowing the dark to flow over him and engulf his supplies. Perhaps engulf was not the right word...he knew that all that stood between him and an awesome amount of water was the walkway and garden wall; should one or the other breach, the cavern would flood. Perhaps to his ankles, perhaps to his neck - with this cavern, he would try to not make any assumptions. The magus grabbed his stuffed mattress around the midsection and began to move his supplies to the end of the path, where it intersected with the elemental's rock garden. The path was plenty wide enough and flat enough for him to make room for a small study. For the next three months, this cave was his home; It's subterranean features, his decor; it's inhabitants, his house mates. He knew that he was drawn here by the forces that rule the universe as he learned that this wondrous regio was home to not just one, but two species of elementals. Ambrosius the Elementalist, he thought to himself. An innate, almost mystical talent for understanding the interaction of the elements. For most, studying ignem grants a better understanding of just that - ignem. But when Ambrosius studied ignem, he understood ignem better, but also received insight on terram, on auram, and on aquam. It is part of what made him what he was. But now...he had an opportunity that so few magi, perhaps none at all, had ever had before. He could study two different types of elementals up close. Perhaps learn to speak their language, learn to cooperate with them; perhaps even collaborate with them! If he could work the powers and abilities of the elementals into his items...Ambrosius stopped and drew in an excited, shuddering breath...he could become the most skill Verditius ever. Think of the good he could do! Think of the infernal agents he could banish! He might even be able to save his...save his... Ambrosius stopped short, not willing to go down that path. He emptied his mind and set about chooing the perfect spot for his study area. He lay his mattress out on a bed of soft but dry moss. The floor was carved flat, allowing him to set his table and single chair up to the side of his bedding. The boxes, he stacked off to the side. He was tempted again to set up an aquam warding circle just in case the cavern should flood, or worse yet, things go badly with the elementals, but decided against it once again. Trust was a large part of any relationship, and it would do no good if he demonstrated his trust by setting up an area that none of the elementals may enter. He decided that his eyes were not likely to adjust much more, and though he could see the major features, he could not see the detail he knew he must be able to in order to properly study. He'd given this possibility some thought before coming down here and had decided on a spell that he'd had cast on him by another apprentice some years back would be helpful here: "Eyes of the Cat". Though such a spell wouldn't normally work in the pitch black of a normal cave, the phosphorescent illumination of this one seemed to provide the ideal atmosphere. He closed his eyes and drew his scarred right hand across them, speaking firmly. He felt the flow of magic drain him slightly, and he opened his eyesAmbrosius 'sponts' "Eyes of the Cat" Muto Corpus Base 2, +1 Touch, +2 Sun = 5 Ambrosius attempt is Muto 5 + Corpus 3 + Stamina 5 + Aura 1 + d Stress Die = 14+d . Even though he'd been under the spell before, the effect was as miraculous to him this time as it was the last. Where he'd expected the colors of the cave to mute and go gray, they instead leapt to life. Each movement, each color practically grabbed his attention. The falling stream of water seemed to separate into individual droplets under his gaze, the mushrooms spots seemed to positively glow. He knew that a portion of this effect would wear off, but that did not stop him from enjoying it now. Nor did it stop him from using it right away. Looking up, he could see myriad stars, gleaming in the dark all about, when he moved his head this way and that, they danced in time, and he quickly deduced that they were merely reflections. He gazed at the constellation of lights for a moment, trying to ascertain where the walls were, but it seemed that there was great depth to the glimmerings, as though he was observing the night sky through a spy glass. Ambrosius carefully stepped further into the cave, approaching the garden with its circle of rocks and the ruling elemental standing stoically in the center, letting it study him in great detail, as seemed to be his way. The elemental before him was different to the one that had stood there before. Its form was a slowly rippling column of water, lacking features or even limbs. As had happened last time, a smaller elemental swam through the air to it, and momentarily disappeared within the larger elemental before emerging from the far side and flitting away. The mage was not clear what kind of reaction, if any, he should get, but it was important to establish a relationship with this apparent head elemental. The few times before he'd spoken with Ambrosius, it had been amicable enough, but completely without and social niceties - conversations were broken off in the middle, they were frequently cut off mid-sentence. These were not human creatures, Ambrosius knew, nor were the the product of humanity, he suspected. It was unreasonable to expect them to have human ways. But then, that is why he was down here. So that he, Ambrosius filius Galfridus ex Verditius could study the ways of the elements. Ambrosius had been among those that had experienced this unique communication with the stoic elemental before, but that did not make the sensation any more comfortable. The words that the elemental spoke formed in Ambrosius’s mind rather than in his ears. His instinct reminded him that the elemental must have penetrated his Parma Magica to speak to his mind this way…but he suspected that defeating Ambrosius’s parma was probably not among the most difficult of things that this elemental accomplished in its average day. As before, Ambrosius was barraged with seemingly unconnected, useless questions on every subject he could imagine, and some of which he’d never heard. He knew that he was in a tenuous position, and had decided that, even though he was not sure if this was a habitat or a prison, that honest, straight forward answers would be best. When they were possible, that was. So, he answered honestly and quickly, dodging nothing and being forthright about everything. He tried on multiple occasions to ferret out some logic to the questions. He considered multiple trains of thought, or even circuitous logic, but in the end, he could discern no pattern whatsoever. Abruptly, the questions stopped. The magus Ambrosius sat, patiently, waiting for the elemental to open communications once again. He continued to wait as one hour, and then two passed, at least by his reckoning. Eventually, Ambrosius rose to shaky legs, and carefully walked back to the beginning of the path back to the steps, where his makeshift camp was set. He didn’t realize, until he set down upon his stool at the table, how exhausted he’d become from the grilling the elemental had given him. He looked around the chamber again, drinking in the luminescence, wondering once again at the reflections in the cavern roof. Before he knew it, he was laying upon his mattress, drifting off to sleep. Progress He rose the next morning and renewed his Parma Magica, for whatever good it would do, as well as Eyes of the Cat. He them made use of the stone pail near the base of the stairs, then with some select use of perdo magic, the pail was nearly empty. He headed up the long flight of stairs, opened the door and retrieved the tray of food that had been let for him. He brought it all back down to his table, and sat there, munching on some bread dipped in an ale that the covenant had left for him. As he ate, he made notes in a bound stack of vellum. As he slept the night before, he’d come to realize that he was making many assumptions about both the elementals and their habitat that were best left to actual discovery. He resolved to further exploring the cavern as soon as he felt he could do it safely. Notes made, and meal consumed, he walked back over to where the elemental still stood, or flowed. He sat down in front of it and tried to open his mind. Almost as soon as he did, an image of the Mynd above filled his mind, forcing out all other conscious though. It was painful at first, as his mind tried to fight the flood of information that mad up the image, but as he concentrated, he dropped his barriers, magical and mental alike, and let the image take shape. It was of the Mynd on a clear and sunny day. He noticed that the sunlight gently pulsed. He looked to the sky, and it pulsed again. Ambrosius thought to himself, ‘’I should be feeling its warmth on my skin.’’ Almost instantly, he was in the image, and he was feeling the warmth. He pictured himself, in the image, closing his eyes and facing the bright midmorning sun, feeling the warmth his face, and the light through his closed eyelids. He sensed immediate comprehension from the elemental. In a flash of insight, he realized that he was being questioned again, but now the elemental was tapping directly into his sensual memory. The elemental was essentially asking, “What is this? How do you sense this?” With this insight, Ambrosius abruptly understood what was going on. As he watched the image, both from a first person and third person view at the same time, the green of the grass gently pulsed. He carefully allowed the senses to merge, the two Ambrosii to become one, and all views merged into the first person. The grass pulsed again, and he kneeled down and ran his hand over the grass, feeling the dew sweep off the broad leaf of the grass blade, feeling the sharp edge of the blade futilely attack his flesh. As his hand swept over the grass, he came to understand a little more. He stopped and closed his eyes, bringing to mind all the memories of first walking atop the Mynd, the wind pushing the long grasses aside, the birds soaring in the sky. He focused on these memories and tried to put as much sensual data into them as possible. As he did this, he could feel the elementals soaking the memories up. Swiftly, the image changed around him, and he found himself back in the caverm, but up the stairs, and by the elemental door. The image of the door pulsed gently. Ambrosius knew that this was likely to happen, and he still was unclear as to how to handle this. Until Ambrosius was comfortable with the nature of the elemental’s relationship with the door and the cavern, he had to be as careful as he could to not show how it opened. As he considered how to address this pulsing door, the image changed again. He found himself upon his sleeping pallet, his table and stool next to him. As he looked around to the stars of the cavern, he found that he was no long in the cavern, but atop the Long Mynd, with stars twinkling down out of the night sky. The questions came to his thoughts, “How do you sense this? How do you feel?” Ambrosius focused on the concepts and feelings of “safety” and “contentedness”. He tried to add a touch of “loneliness”. As he summoned these feeling, a gentle rain started to fall in the vision. As it grew steadily harder, Ambrosius considered creating a shelter out of the earth for himself, but decided that since the Elementals had been communicating more by sense than by any other method, and his response should consider that. So Ambrosius rolled his pallet, and put it under the meager shelter of the table. He then proceeded to remove all of his clothing, and place them under the table. Naked, he strode out and away from his table and other belongings, and he spread his arms wide, letting the rain soak his skin. As the rain fell even harder, he lie down, face up, and allowed the falling rain to overwhelm his senses. He opened his mouth and drank of the rain, a cool, sweet water. Again, the image changed. He saw his table, surrounded by absolute nothingness. A void, lacking even a sensation of space. A question comes to his mind. “Where?” He pictured the table back in its normal place, up against the wall in his laboratory. As suddenly as they started, the images stopped. He wasn’t aware of how much of the day had passed as he was drawn into these elemental visions, but he did now that it was after sundown, since his vision had returned to normal. He sat at the table and ate down the last of the break and cheese from the day’s food delivery as he wrote his notes from the days encounter. He came to understand that just as the visions were a method of communication, he was able to draw subconsciously, some information on the speaker, the elemental with whom he’d been communicating. It appears that this larger elemental, indeed, all larger elementals, are actually a cooperative consciousness of many smaller ones. To over simplify it, the larger elementals are simply cooperative colonies of the smaller ones. It was more than that, but he’d have to give it more consideration sometime later. He’d also come to understand that the elemental with which he was speaking was not the ruler. He was more of an emissary of sorts. That made Ambrosius wonder, how often had this happened before, that they needed an emissary? Ambrosius doused the small, flickering flame of the candle he used to write by, and lay down onto his mattress to drift to sleep. The Dream Ambrosius dreamt of water. He dreamt of turbulent seas, wind blown showers, surging tides, and rainbows. He dreamt of collossal blocks of white ice adrift in calm, grey seas. He dreamt of a raindrop that fell into a mountain stream, and flowed by diverse courses to the open sea. Each night, his dreams passed by and left their mark upon him, only to fade with the morning. Were it not for his parma, he would not have had a means to gauge the passing of time. So orderly and punctual was this ritual that it served to mark the days as well as any other means of chronometry. Time The time after that seemed to flow together, only the departures from routine making anything standing out. Ambrosius became better and better at the sensual imagery that the elementals used to communicate. While he never came to the level of fluent communication, he was able to communicate semi-complex thoughts. Still, there were concepts that he could not communicate. Vis, was one. How do you image vis? He tried showing extraction, vessels, and “raw” vis, but the elementals never seemed to show any interest in the topic at all. In the first couple days, a smaller elemental followed Ambrosius up to the elemental door, apparently intent on watching Ambrosius open the door. Still not convinced that it would not be a mistake to do so, Ambrosius considered his response. He explained to the elemental as carefully and truthfully as he was able, his concerns about the elemental’s presence under the Mynd, and the purpose of the door. The elemental seemed to take this explanation at face value, and retreat a safe distance as Ambrosius retrieved his food for the day, leaving several empty sacks for the staff to pick up later. The relationship between the magus and the elementals became more and more familiar. The elementals gave the mage permission to use their water for all mundane purposes, including drinking and washing. He found the water cool, sweet and refreshing. Eventually, he began swimming with the creatures, exploring the cavern. He was very surprised to discover that he, the path and the garden were not in a cavern at all, but a gigantic bubble, a pocket of air. Where he expected to find stone wall, he found a wall of water, curving smoothly away, creating a sphere in which this habitat existed. The size of this bubble was immense. He found he was unable to swim its breadth, let alone follow the bubble’s wall around its circumference. In the bubble was this garden, the path, and the lake. He soon discovered that the elementals, though they seemed to prefer the water of the lake, could swim through the air just as readily as the water. There was no change as they passed from water to air and back, unless they were passing through the bubble wall. When they did so, they seemed to shrink in size very suddenly. Ambrosius tried to push his hand through the bubble wall, but discovered that as he got less than an inch into the wall, his finger tip was being crushed, to great pain. He pulled his finger back quickly, nursing his finger tip in his mouth. As Ambrosius returned to the table, climbed out of the lake and allowed himself to air dry. He found that in his close interaction with the water of the lake and elementals, it simply did not make sense to remain clothed, so he took to spending his days nude. A History Ambrosius noticed some curious things about the elementals as he studied them. They seemed to be both of one mind, and of individual minds, in each of their sizes. As each messenger would come up to the steward elemental to which Ambrosius had been speaking during this time, he would briefly increase in size before the smaller elemental departed, taking their mass with them. There came a time when Ambrosius set out to learn the history of the pocket in which he lived, even if only temporarily. He approached Æ, for that was what the magus had taken to calling him, and opened the conversation. Elementals forming a circle underwater, on the bottom of a great lake. The elementals shimmer and stir, exert force, and form a bubble of air.’’ Æ shifted almost imperceptibly as he modified the vision, ''Elementals disappear. Brown Robed Men replace elementals. Around the robed humanoid men, a bubble of air appears, the garden springs forth.’’ Ambrosius transferred his consciousness to the image in the way that the elementals had taught him, allowing himself to talk around this frozen moment in elemental imagery. As he looked upward, angling himself so that he may see under the hoods of the figured, he could see that they were indeed human in appearance, and of varying ethnicities. Ambrosius concentrated and adjusted the image so that the robed figures each wore a silver amulet bearing the image of House Deidne. The mage sent a barely coherent thought to Æ that had come to represent a “?”, allowing Ambrosius a crude manner of asking, “Did they wear something like this?” The image is shifted back to how it was before, a strong sense of the negative on the fading image of the amulets. Now the hood is down on one of the figures. The face was that of an unremarkable human male with brown hair and brown eyes, but a large red glass bead hung from one ear. ''So they were not Deidne, Ambrosius thought, intrigued. The mage waved away everything in the image but the earring. Then he caused the earring to float gently over to rest in the palm of his hand. The weight of the earring increased drastically, and there was a great and powerful sense of overwhelming pressure around it. Ambrosius dropped the earring to the imaginary floor where shift from being that of the garden to that of the lakebed. Then that image rushed away from him, showing a great space between the magus and the earring. Ambrosius sent, '' Æ moves to earring, bends down, picks up earring. Æ gives earring to Ambrosius’’ The image reset, '' Æ stands over earring, but does not touch it.’’ Before Ambrosius could form the next image, one formed floating in the air before him. First, it was the amulet that the magus had placed around the neck of robed men, then the amulet faded away, leaving just the Deidne House sigil. The sigil shrunk and moved away, applying itself to a badly cooroded bracelet that had appeared just when the sigil was the correct size to apply. Æ appeared and took the bracelet, placing it in Ambrosius’s hand. Suddenly, the link was broken, and Ambrosius stood once again in the garden, tiny splashes of water from all manner of sources spraying over his bare skin. He found his right hand extended and in it was the bracelet of the vision; a badly corroded silver bracelet with the sigil of House Deidne on it. ----- The next morning, Ambrosius determined that it was time her learn more about the creators of this bubble. After all necessities were taken care of, he once again opened communication with Æ. ''Ring of brown robed men. Man wearing earring. Earring man directs the other brown robbed men.’’ The image shimmered, ''Two men in brown robes standing before some other incarnation of Æ, deep in concentrated conversation with him. The conversation finishes. The men walk away, back to the door, as the imagery follows. The men produce the pure elements necessary to open the door. The door opens. The men leave. Abruptly, Ambrosius breaks off the shared conversation, realizing that the elementals seem to have possessed the knowledge of ''how’’ to open the door – possibility for quite some time. He was about to restore the communications between himself and Æ when he realized that the elemental had grown in size. As he watched, it became apparent that the smaller, messenger elementals, which normally joined with him for a moment or two then departed, where remaining with him. Æ’s mass was growing. Growing or not, there was little impact the magus could have on it. Ambrosius resolved to resume communication. The image picked up right where he’d broken it, with the two robed men exiting through the door. Just then, am image of Ambrosius and Mnemosyne appeared just inside the door. Ambrosius saw the image of himself attempt to case a spell. Then the image is flooded with a bright, painful light, and a sense of great torment. ----- ''Garden. Bubble barrier. Fish on the other side of the barrier. Change of perspective, the garden is on the other side of the barrier. Follow the fish, as it swims to the surface. Fish reaches surface and leaps into the air under a beautiful blue sky. It leaps again, and it is snatched mid-leap by an eagle.’’ Nothing. ''Change point of view. Another fish. Swims to surface. Leaps into air. Cave roof mere feet above the surface of the water.’’ Ambrosius felt Æ take over the image. ''Fish does not leap. Fish swims up through a hole in the cavern roof. It swims for some time. Image fades. ''Ambrosius presses through the barrier and begins to swim to the surface.” ''Ambrosius is crushed and sinking. Fish nibble at his soft and decaying flesh. His body comes to rest on a mound of plants and a pile of bodies.’’ Ambrosius inserted himself into the vision to walk among it, as before. He saw himself, crushed by the pressure, laying lifeless on the lake floor. Beneath him were a pile of bodies. He could not tell how many, or how old, but he could see an odd boot tip here, a scrap of clothing there. Among the bodies, he could make out one of a young peasant man. Ambrosius made the body float up towards the cavern roof, the decomposition reversing as he rises. When he tried to hand the image over to Æ, the body simply fell back to the floor in the same state it was originally. Ambrosius tried again, but this time, he pulled the body back to the bubble, arriving whole and alive. Æ took the image over and showed the young man standing before some incarnation of Æ, answering questions, just as Ambrosius had. Then, with nothing in-between, the young man was once again dead and decomposing upon the lakebed. “How did the man get in?” Ambrosius queried aloud to himself. He reformed the image of the young man, and placed him on the far side of the elemental chamber door. Æ seized the image and moved the man to just insides the door, right where Mnemosyne and Ambrosius appeared. Ambrosius imagined the door opening, but Æ forced it closed. Then, almost faster than Ambrosius could follow, a stream of images showed people appearing in the hallway, beyond the closed door, then being questioned by elemental steward, and then dead upon the lakebed. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to who or why. Some were harried and crazy, as if they were being pursued and ran into thorn bushes. Some were noble in appearance and imperious in carriage. One, the last one they showed him, though he did not know if she was the most recent, or the most interesting, was a maga ex Deidne, wearing a silver bracelet with her house sigil on it. The image slows down as she answers the questions of Æ, or his predecessor. She is calm, and confident. Then she is a body, laying with the others, fish eating away at her flesh. Exausted, Ambrosius politely broke off the communication and headed to the table to make his notes. A small meal and a swim later, he was upon his pallet, seeking sleep. The dreaming continued. Interlude ''Tired. I have never felt. So. Tired. By my reckoning, I have been within the water elemental’s cave for nearly half the season. I have learned a great deal about them, including how to communicate with them, they have even taught me, through sheer necessity, the basic rudiments of swimming. I have washed with their water; I have taken their water to slake my thirst. I have spoken of men in brown robes, and piles of bodies. I have uncovered more mysteries that I could possibly have guessed resided beyond those stairs, that first day that the Maga Mnemosyne and I encountered them. Yet for each mystery, I have uncovered, I have found only more questions, more curiosities. There is so much I would know, but dare not sacrifice my time. Even as I puzzle out how to ask the more complicated questions, I feel my task, my TRUE task, slipping further and further away from me. I eat, sleep, stand, sit and make waste amongst beings of pure elemental water. I MUST be able to gain from them some greater understanding of aquam – and through them, the other elements. It may be knowledge the possess and hold dear, or it may be knowledge that they simply discard as a hog’s slop, but I feel I am failing to gather it to me. I have been amongst them for more than two full cycles of the moon, and have nothing but pale skin and a sore back to show for it. The worst part of it has been the dreams. Almost since I arrived, I have been having the same dream over and over again. I sense that small, insignificant factor changes now and then, but I when I awake, that change is much like the content of dream itself…lost in the obscurity of wakefulness. As an apprentice, I learned much of being tired. I learned much of failing, and much of succeeding. I knew, when I first contemplated this sojourn, that I might not learn what I set out to, but I did not suspect that so much time would pass and I would be bearing such a heavy feeling of being lost. '' Final Understanding The light emanated through the murky depths of the subterranean reservoir with an eerie luminescence. The light of the softly glowing rock scattered throughout the surfaces of this monstrous cavern highlighted the very edge of forms moving through the water as if they owned it, darting this way and that, merging, and breaking apart. It seemed that they had been there as long as time itself. A human male, clad in a simple tunic and cloth covering his loin, brandishing a sword before him, came into existence in the center of one of the better lit areas of the lake. As swiftly as he appeared, his eyes shot wide with horror, before collapsing in upon themselves. His skull creased and crimpled in odd places, and strands of scarlet blood blossomed through the strands like the hair of medusa. Though the warrior died in less time then it took for him to realize his peril, the denizens of the lake noticed him. Each and every one of them knew instantly that something was happening, and they all flocked simultaneously to edge of the lighted area in which the man’s body had sunk. Many of the water creatures latched together, merging as they arrived, forming a larger version of themselves. More and more creatures added their mass to this new creature, and it grew in size. So quickly did it grow that the outward current it generated almost prevented the second human from emerging within the lake, where he to suffered a crushing death and sank to the bottom to be with his brother in arms. The Master Elemental, having formed of hundreds of its little brothers and sisters, realized collectively what needed to be done. T/He/y brought their collective will to bear upon the water around them, and formed a gargantuan bubble of air, just as was on the surface, allowing the barrier of the sphere to wick away the pressure. The smaller elementals withdrew to beyond the barrier, where they could observe without being seen. Alone, the Master stood within the bubble as yet a third human appear, a look of terror on his face, as he plunged head first into the open air of the bubble and fell to the bottom with a “squish”. With a thought, the Master Elemental lifted the bubble ever so slightly, aligning the surface with the edge of the regio from which these human beings were emerging. Gaining his feet, the human gazed upon the master elemental and, rather than fleeing for his life, closed his eyes and carefully stepped backwards, and vanished. Moments later, the human returned, carefully keeping his eye upon the Master. Behind this human, emerged several men in brown robes. The men noticed the bodies of their henchmen, laying upon the lakebed just out of reach, beyond the barrier of the sphere. Frowning in disapproval, the men approached the Master and spoke heatedly with it. Steam rose from their robes and heads as they argued silently with the Master. Swiftly, the image jumps forward in time. The brown robed men and the Master make a compromise, and the men begin constructing a stairway and walkway, a circular garden. This is all done as if the viewer we a tree, observing the tens of seasons as they passed. The construction efforts link to a much older structure, a barrow like temple of sorts. There is a sense that, where now the stairs descend into the darkness, there once was a spring of water. That water possessed power. Back in the completed garden, the brown robes have gathered again. There are more of them now, and they are chatting amiably amongst themselves. Try as he might, Ambrosius could not understand what they said. It sounded as if they used Latin sounds, but none of the sounds seemed to form together into recognizable words. Many of the brown robes were paying heed to a woman in the same brown cloak. She sprinkled water upon the ground of the garden and from it sprung luscious, glowing mushrooms. Where the mushrooms grew, she demonstrated, so two did a variety of unusual vegetables. She demonstrated how to harvest and prepare both the mushrooms and the vegetables. As she droned on in her pseudo Latin, the man with the earring, turned to leave. As he walked out, he brought with him a crude clay lamp. As Ambrosius looked closely, he could tell that the lamp, though primitive in design, was far from crude. Within it, he could identify pure forms of all four elements, as well as a wick of pure herbam. The earring man and a companion walked to the enchanted door, where he touched the lamp to the door. The tree sprung too life and folded open while the earring man handed the lamp to his companion. The lamp bearer headed back down into the cave, while the brown robed leader joined members of his flock outside. Ambrosius watched as they climbed the hill and vanished into the second layer of the regio. ---- Ambrosius broke off the communication. It had been a very long day, and he’d been sitting still for the majority of it, deep in conversation with Æ, his name for this liaison elemental. He wanted to cap the night off with a quick practice at swimming, a meal, and some notes in his journal, but first… There was an element of that last vision that he’d like to try for himself. Stretching his hand towards the water, he began to chant the words and summon the power, but stopped. There was no need to throw magic around for this simple test. He retrieved his cloak from under the table where it had been stored with the rest of his clothing, and used to form a bowl of cloth between his arms. With it, he scooped water from the lake and began to step over to a likely section of the garden. The water sloshed messily back and forth until Æ gestured, then the water simply…behaved. Ambrosius let the water sprinkle through the cloth of the cloak, much like an impromptu watering can. Before he used all the water from the bowl of his cloak, the ground leapt open and the same luscious, blue glowing mushrooms started breaking forth from the ground. Ambrosius set the cloak aside and set down to watch. He could practically see the mushrooms grow; their height increase, their glow intensify. He sat there for several minutes, observing the qualities of the plants, and absorbing the quality of the magic. Finally, he got up and placed a hand in the lake water. He drew the power in, speaking the words, and making ripples of gestures, and the water leapt from the lake’s surface and sprinkled upon the garden’s bed. Almost immediately, the ground in many areas broke as if plowed by pixies within the soil, and the tops of mushrooms, broke forth. There was much area still unaffected and Ambrosius hoped that some of those areas would give forth the various vegetables that he’d seen in his vision. Satisfied with the day’s labor, he set about his nightly routine, finishing up with notes in his journal by mushroom-light. ---- His time in the caverns coming to an end, Ambrosius had already sent word to the council asking for a two day delay for the Spring 1223 council meeting. He had discovered a small hole in the ceiling for the barrow that appear to align with the sun on the solstice in such a way as to illuminate a spot upon the floor. He intended to stay for that so that he might ensure such a rare event is not missed. In the meantime, Ambrosius had come to understand a great many things. He’d come to terms with the dreams, understanding them to be the mechanism by which his magic was absorbing the information about aquam. He’d understood how all but one of the bodies came to rest on the lake bed. It was that one body he sought to understand this day. ---- The brown-robed men and women stood in the vibrant garden in a circle. In the center, the Diedne Maga appeared. ‘’No.’’ The brown-robed men and women vanished, the vibrant plants of the garden shriveled and died, leaving the circle as barren as when Ambrosius and the others first laid eyes upon it. The maga remained, faced by some incarnation of Æ, undergoing the intense litany of questions that had faced every human occupant of this chamber. Ambrosius watched carefully, trying to understand why she, out of all of the people to undergo the questioning, did not survive. Her eyes and body betrayed nothing. Did she lie? Could that have been it? Then a though hit Ambrosius. To the scene, he added the bulky but translucent image of a terrible daemon, it’s great leathery wings outstretched, his horns curled around his head like a ram. His red skin was scantily covered by threatening pieces of leather armor, studded with bits of metal. Ambrosius brought the image up behind the maga and placed it over top of her, enveloping her. With it, he sent the concept of “possessed”. Æ seemed to consider this for a moment, and then changed the image. The garden was replaced with the nothingness of gray limbo. Standing in the limbo were the maga and the daemon, speaking with each other. AGREEING with each other. Understanding, Ambrosius replaced the scene with the interviewing of the maga. She broke off the conversation and stalked away towards stairs, but found that she was blocked by a wall of water. She turned back to the center of the garden to complain to Æ, but found that he was slowly receeding into the lake as well. A sudden panic filled her and she started to gather mystic energy together, but not quickly enough. The bubble collapsed and the maga was crushed under the weight of a mountain of water. After a few moments, the bubble reasserted itself. When it did, the body of the maga had gone to join the others. Fare-Thee-Well By the time the first rays of the sun started to show through the hole in the barrow ceiling, Ambrosoius had dressed for the first time in months. He gathered together his gear and stowed it near door to the 1st layer. He’d left plenty of time to ensure that he did not miss the event. As the circle of light formed and grew in intensity, it traced an arch light pattern across the floor. When the light began to touch the brick at the apex of the arc, a symbol upon it, that Ambrosius had never noticed before, had begun to glow. Upon the symbol, the shape of a lamp began to form. Crude in design, Ambrosius recognized it immediately. This is the elemental lamp that can be used as a key to these magical doors. It took on final, physical shape as the light of the spring solstice reached its peak through the hole, and Ambrosius carefully picked it up. It burned still, and Ambrosius suspected that it would continue to do so for many, many years to come. He took the lamp and headed back down the stairs to bid his farewells. ---- From the Diary of Ambrosius ex Verditius Looking back upon this last season, I have to admit that it has been an interesting one. Very little proceeded as I had anticipated, yet I am not convinced that I did not achieve what I set out to accomplish. Nothing is as clear as I expected it to be, but it seems to me that this is a lesson that I will be learning time and time again in the realm of magic. There was one final event, stemming from my season’s worth of study that I thought to relay in this text. As I bid fare-thee-well to Æ, a new elemental was awaiting me on the stairs. Much larger even than Æ, I inquired as to its purpose, and was shown what I believe to be an image of the third region layer from a time before whatever calamity caused it to become level. It was a lofty peak, and atop the summit there was an irregular, but serene pool of water. I knew instinctively that it was a home to these elementals, though I had no knowledge of how many or even their intentions regarding it. Nevertheless, I had spent enough time amongst these creatures to know that the intent was not hostile. I invited the large elemental to follow me, but as I did, Æ showed me an image of my protecting and caring for the elemental. So, this I did. After I moved the majority of items to outside of the elemental door, this new elemental and I started up through the layers. If I had any question as to why Æ wanted me to care for this elemental despite the awesome powers they’d demonstrated to me over the last season, that question was answered by the time we approached the covenant proper. The elemental had lost a great deal of water to evaporation, and it was clear that he would not survive the journey. It was an easy thing to summon up a drizzle to keep him moist and replenish him, though it was not quite so easy to maintain the drizzle as we walked. Indeed, I was unable to maintain the concentration as we crossed from the second to their layer, but I was able to create a new rain as I needed. On the third layer, the elemental seemed lost, as it wandered around, seeking something; I’m almost ashamed to admit that it took me more than a few moments to understand that he sought the pool long ago destroyed. I communicated to him my limited understanding of the catastrophe that leveled the 3rd layer as we know it now, and offered to create a new pool for him. He agreed, and wove the magic and commanded the earth to create the pool to his race’s memory. I ended up with a rough pond of sorts; a preternatural shape that one might find atop a mountain elsewhere, a uneven crescent about 20 paces long and 12 paces wide, the floor of which was covered with rocks and stones of various sizes and shapes. I used the displaced earth to create a circular low wall around the pond, and commanded much of the remaining snow into the pond to fill it. Once done, the elemental walked out to the center and, without ceremony, sunk into the surface. The water level of the pond rose as he did, much more than his volume would have suggested, bringing the water up to lap upon the top edge of pool’s lip. As the elemental sank, the ground around the pool darkened, perhaps taking in water or nutrients, I am not sure. I would wager a guess however, that the ground around this elemental pool shall support life easily. Now, I have retired to my lab, having spoken with Llewys about his time apart, and had my goods delivered. I write these final notes about my experience, and wonder still, the depth of that which I have learned. The knowledge gained, I think, shall be much like a body of water – one may not know the depth simply by gazing at the surface. What is the only way to know the depth of a body of water? You must jump in.